History Of Coffee In India

best coffee brand in India

Indian coffee is also known as “Indian thunderstorm coffee”! It is grown primarily in the southern parts of the country under thunderstorm conditions. People know its flavor as “At its best, it’s soft and uninspiring, but at its worst, it’s mellow and uninspired.”

Arabica and Robusta are the most common varieties of coffee. The first and best coffee brand in India was introduced in the Baba Budan Giri hill ranges of the Indian soil of Karnataka in the 17th century. It was retailed over the times under several brand names.

About Ethiopian Coffee

Ethiopia appears to have the longest track record in terms of coffee history, and Ethiopia’s historic coffee forests can be traced back hundreds of years.

Coffee was found by a local goat herder named Kaldi, according to legend. Kaldi’s goats were rumored to be eating berries from a nearby tree. After eating the berries, he saw that the goats were so energized that they wouldn’t even sleep at night.

According to experts, Kaldi reported the strange fruit he discovered to the nearby monastery’s abbot. The abbot tasted the berries and decided to make a drink out of them.

He notified the other monks about the berries when they discovered that this berries-based drink has helped him to stay alert during night-time prayer. The legend of the miracle berries that would deliver incredible amounts of energy started from there.

The Arabian Peninsula and Coffee

Only in the 15th century can genuine historical evidence concerning these wonder berries be unearthed. While the berries discovered in Ethiopia are thought to be the origin of coffee, it would take a long time for them to evolve into the roasted beans we know today.

It is known that coffee was cultivated in the Yemen district of the Arabian Peninsula that too in the 15th century. Coffee began to spread throughout the world once it became popular in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Persia, Turkey, Egypt, and Syria all became coffee hotspots. However, it took until the 17th century for it to be discovered in Europe.

Market Segments For Coffee

  • In India, dominating the production of coffee is in the hilly regions of Southern parts of India, with Karnataka at 70%, Kerala with 22%, and Tamil Nadu with 6%.
  • Coffee in India is among the best coffee brands in India, it is cultivated under the shade instead of being grown under the sun directly. Around 98% of the country’s coffee farmers are small-scale.
  • Indian coffee had made up only 4.5% in production, globally, in 2009. But now nearly 81% of coffee in India is being exported; where 70% is exported to Russia, Germany, Belgium, Spain, United States, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Greece, Netherlands, France, and Japan. Among all, approx. 29% is exported to Italy. The Suez canal is used to export most of the coffee shipments.

Planting Of Coffee

Coffee is planted in particular regions of Southern India namely Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka form the regions where coffee is grown traditionally; this is followed by areas that are newly developed in regions that are non-traditional such as Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, that is in the country’s eastern sea-coast.

Coffee plantations can also be found in the Northern parts of India including Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal, and Nagaland (that are famously known as the Seven Sisters)

The First Coffee Ever!

Before establishing the East India Trading Company, the first-ever coffee brand that was known to be the best in India appeared in 1670. A Sufi saint from India named Baba Budan, from his trip back from Yemen, came back with a coffee sap to Chikmagalur, it is a small hilly region located in Karnataka.